ISI agents using trap of old ties, good money to lure people to spy

NEW DELHI: Forty-four-year-old Kafaitullah Khan walked into the ISI trap when he arrived from J&K’s Rajouri to New Delhi, seeking a visa to visit his relative in Pakistan’s Gujranwala in 2013. Khan was working as a library assistant at a higher secondary school in Manjkote then. His story is similar to those of several others who seek a Pakistani visa but are lured by ISI agents to spy by offering them good money.
Intelligence agencies that bust the spy rings say Khan is not the first case and don’t expect it to be the last either.

The ISI modus operandi is to identify those who have relatives in armed forces or police.

Khan’s relative, BSF jawan Abdul Rasheed, was identified during one such scout. “This is the common pattern we have seen in most of the espionage cases. The chain is so long that the mastermind or handlers never get caught. Most handlers have assumed names,” the official explained.

Delhi police’s crime branch which arrested Khan described him as an ISI agent who was working for it since 2013 when he visited Pakistan and was being paid Rs 20,000 every month. ISI also helped him get his travel papers authenticated during the visit after it was found to be incomplete, said police.

The cops said they are probing whether Rasheed had introduced his contacts in paramilitary to his handler and what kind of information was shared but all of them appear to be low level operatives, said an officer.

The BSF acclaimed that Rasheed never had any classified information that could prove detrimental to national interest. “He was only aware about troop movements,” said a BSF official. However, after the two spies were booked under the Official Secrets Act, police claimed they have seized important documents on troop movement and vital installations in their possession.